Yep, we video-recorded all four official races of Round 4. Could be a little boring since we didn’t have enough marshals to pull off a normal race, so there are a lot of yellow flags and other interruptions. However, you can fast forward, rewind, skip, whatever. The bottom line is you can learn a lot about reviewing how you did during a race.
Well, it was kind of a staggered day with Team Maddox showing up in the AM and doing a bunch of testing laps and one full rotation race. Shaylin Maddox won the only race we did, which I think is her first full race win–Way to go!
Abe Maddox seemed to be a bit distracted but wasn’t too far off. He also won a heat or two. Shaylin and Abe were both running Viper V-SPEC cars while I was running a bone-stock MegaG+ with a “paper” Whelen Modified body.
Normally, a V-SPEC Viper would blow the doors off a stock MegaG+ 1.7 car. However, with the paper body, the chassis is much faster and handles significantly better. Still working on the paper body design for the 1.7 MG+ but I am getting close to a simple and easy-to-install version. I’m focusing on a USAC Whelen Modified style first and will look at other designs once I sort out what works and what doesn’t.
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Shaylin Maddox
174
83
2428.881
2
Steve Stewart
178
81
2443.839
3
Abe Maddox
158
76
2452.908
Later in the day, Aaron Castro showed up to test some MegaG+ cars and got to meet most of Team Maddox as they were getting ready to roll towards home. Webster Motorsports showed up shortly after Aaron’s arrival.
Team Maddox departing was a bummer but they accomplished their goals and had a great track day. The good news was we still had three drivers on the track so we did a bunch of hot lapping and then clicked off one Viper V-SPEC rotation race. The racing was very close with Aaron bagging second place overall and Kevin Webster very, very close.
We decided to tech the cars to show Aaron the process. Both Kevin’s and Aaron’s cars were relatively close in both dyno numbers and downforce, while Home Cookn’s car was substantially better in both categories.
Turns out, both drivers were running out-of-the box V-SPEC chassis’ with only timing adjustments. Kevin’s car was actually running retarded timing, which is good for small home tracks and tight courses. Aaron’s car was running fairly neutral timing. Both cars had stock Razor front ends and stock PST rear tires.
Of course, advancing the end bell timing makes a big difference in off-the-corner and straightaway speeds, installing smaller profile rear tires increases downforce considerably, and an independent front-end improves corner speed.
All this made me realize that most of our Sportsman drivers are probably running bone-stock Viper V-SPEC cars, which can be very competitive but obviously inferior to a properly setup HOPRA SPEC RACER chassis, which are the only V-SPEC rules we run at Stewart Raceway right now.
Maybe we need to revive the HOPRA SPEC STOCK class. Pretty much the same rules as SPEC RACER but is restricted to hardbodies and no adjustable brush barrels. Independent front-ends are still allowed but that is not a big game changer.
Any other ideas out there? I think the SPEC RACER rules are pretty basic but it looks like we need to bring some parity to the Viper V-SPEC class racing.
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My first iteration of a “super-light” paper body for our MegaG+ Support Class cars. This one is made out of premium glossy photo paper and is mounted on a 1.7 MegaG+ chassis using 8 mil clear double-sided tape I got from George.
Kevin worked up this body using some sort of drafting paper and then laminated it with some other material.
Both bodies are pretty cool. Haven’t tested them on the track yet but I did run a regular paper prototype last Saturday on a Jag DR-1 chassis and it held up pretty well. These bodies are way light and the car feels and handles like it has no body at all.
Design ideas are limitless and very appealing. We’ll see how durable they are. I’m looking forward to coming up with a Midget car design and upgrading my SWB MegaG+ IROC set. Once you get the design set and printed, it takes about the same time to trim and mount as a typical Lexan body. And way, way cheaper than even a clear Lexan body.
The plan was to run all day exclusively on the 4-lane SR2 track. We started on SR2’s straight road course and did a bunch of hot laps before the usual suspects wanted to do some racing.
This was the first time in almost two years that we were running anything on the SR2 table. It took quite a few laps to clean the rails and get the cobwebs off the track. Due to a technical issue, we ran both practice and the only race on SR2 using Race Coordinator software, which did the job but had a couple of issues. Regardless, we were able to click off a race of six 25-lap heats using Kevin Webster’s Wizzard Storm Extreme IROC set.
Finish
Seed
Driver
Laps
Score
L1
L2
L3
L 4
1
1
Abe Maddox
87
18
7
11
16
16
2
4
Steve Stewart
94
18
11
16
13
13
3
3
Martha Elderon
91
18
7
7
16
16
4
5
Shaylin Maddox
88
17
11
7
13
16
5
2
Jerry Pearson
94
15
11
11
13
13
6
6
Kevin Webster
86
15
7
7
13
11
Just a fun race but it was very, very competitive. Abe won two heats and Martha Elderon won two heats. Only Kevin and I had experience on SR2 so it was quite impressive to see the new drivers do so well on the different course. Detailed Results
Abe’s Mom, Shaylin, wins the final heat of the Wizzard Storm race on SR2.
As seems to be the trend these days, Abe won on points and Martha bagged the final podium spot just three laps down on Home Cook’n. Not to be outdone by Abe, his Mom, Shaylin won the final heat with a perfect score of 25 laps.
Matthew Johnson didn’t race but he sure did a bunch of laps.
Abe was eager to get back to the SR3 course and let his Viper car rip. After a bunch of laps on SR3 with a whole new slew of drivers, Abe continued his dominance on the day by winning the second race on SR3. It wasn’t exactly a level playing field since Abe was running a Viper V-SPEC rig against mostly less capable cars. But Abe remained focused as ever and managed to edge out his schoolmate, Dax Schwartz, by just two laps. Madeline Johnson was just three laps behind Dax. Dax’s brother, Julian Schwartz, was just one lap behind Madeline. Extremely close racing by our neighborhood junior drivers!
Visiting adult driver, Andrew Noske, from Australia, did very well in his first-ever slot car race posting the second-fastest lap of the race! Thanks for joining us, Andrew! Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Abe Maddox
40
17
364.271
2
Dax Schwartz
38
13
369.306
3
Madeline Johnson
35
11
370.117
4
Julian Schwartz
34
7
372.34
5
Andrew Noske
32
6
369.146
Okay, there it is. A beautiful day in the mountains, with a fantastic group of slotheads, and some seriously competitive and fun racing.
The juniors picking up their Hot Wheels hardware and medals.
Next weekend is the final round of the 2023 50/50 Series. Sportsman drivers, Jordan Walker and Kevin Webster are just eleven points apart in the series. Round 5 should decide which driver wins the series and moves on to the Expert ranks of our hobby. Best of luck to both drivers! The final round will be run on SR2 and will include at least two fuel races.
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Yep, could not get the minimum driver/team registrations so ended up with a casual track day instead. Just four drivers but we did make history…
Kevin Webster, Jerry Pearson, and Martha Elderon showed up on a beautiful day in the Santa Cruz mountains to race but were not disappointed. We ended up racing our newest additions to the track’s IROC fleet.
Race 1 was the new AutoWorld Super III NASCAR cars running on the inside four lines of SR3. Jerry Pearson was on fire in both races. We decided on 16v for these cars as 18v seemed a bit too much for the longer NASCAR body wheelbase bodies.
AutoWorld Super III 1.7 chassis’ with NASCAR bodies. With a few easy mods, they run pretty good.
Jerry dominated the first-ever Super III race held on SR3 with a convincing win in the first segment followed by a second, third, and a first in the final segment, edging out Home Cook’n by just one point overall. He didn’t set any lap records in the process but he garnered the most points and took the top spot on the first-ever Super III podium at Stewart Raceway. Way to go, Jerry! (Details)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Jerry Pearson
78
56
1297.84
2
Steve Stewart
80
55
1250.01
3
Kevin Webster
76
45
1286.333
4
Martha Elderon
72
32
1302.092
Jerry wasn’t quite done with his stellar driving on the day. Next up was the Eric”Fastlane” Lane Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy cars. Eric gifted a brand-new set of four of these cars to the track recently and, boy, are they a hoot to drive. Smooth, very fast, and just a pleasure to drive.
Jerry, again, had a great race, winning two heats and only missed the top podium spot by two points. Jerry matched Home Cook’n lap for lap except for Segment 2, where he lost a lap and finished third. Had Jerry finished second or better in Segment 2, he might have secured the top podium spot in both races. Great driving by all, especially Martha, she doesn’t think so but she’s cutting exceptionally fast laps for somebody who has never owned a single slot car. Nice driving, Martha! (Details)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
80
58
988.626
2
Jerry Pearson
79
56
1026.13
3
Kevin Webster
76
42
1015.468
4
Martha Elderon
67
32
1011.375
So, all in all, the two new IROC sets are very nice additions to the raceway fleet. The Super III cars took some work to get dialed in equal enough for fun IROC racing. Kevin Webster spent some extra time after the races and got all six running great for next time. As usual, the Viper V-SPEC cars were all very close in performance and very, very fast out of the box.
A fun day and great to flush out the new IROC sets before the next round of the 50/50 Series.
Well, it was kind of a staggered day with Team Maddox showing up in the AM and doing a bunch of testing laps and one full rotation race. Shaylin Maddox won the only race we did, which I think is her first full race win–Way to go!
Kevin worked up this body using some sort of drafting paper and then laminated it with some other material.
